July 81, I860. 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



87 



by setting it at a right angle it becomes useful for lifting the 

 dirt from the bottom of post holes. 5th, It is conveniently 

 packed for transportation. 



ORCHARD-HOUSE CULTURE. 



Some few weeks since a neighbour pointed out to me an 

 article on orchard-house culture, and, if I remember correctly, 

 advising those who thought of erecting small orchard-houses 

 not to do so. In common with some neighbours I have many 

 small orchard-houses, which have now been in work some ten 

 or twelve years. I call them small because they are low, being 

 7 feet high in the centre, 4 feet at the sides, and from 10 to 

 12 and 14 feet wide. These houses are full of Peach, Nec- 

 tarine, and Apricot trees, all in full health and vigour ; I may 

 add, as usual, for they have never yet failed in doing well. The 

 only precaution necessary to ensure a crop of fruit is to place 

 a pan of charcoal in each house when the trees are in full 

 bloom, or while the fruit is young, if our spring frosts are 

 severe, as such low structures are not spring-frost-proof like 

 houses with lofty rooofs. 



I am particularly struck this season by one of these low 

 houses full of Apricot trees, three years old, all pyramids, in 

 11 -inch pots, in which they have been two seasons. They 

 have been pinched-in closely during the summer, and all are 

 perfect in shape. 



Every tree — there are upwards of 150 — is studded with fine 

 fruit, from eight to twelve on each, to which number they have 

 been thinned. In the whole of my long experience I have 

 never seen anything in fruit culture more beautiful than this 

 assemblage of pyramidal Apricot trees. Their management 

 has been rather peculiar, but most simple. I have, in a paper, 

 which will be published in the " Proceedings " of the Inter- 

 national Botanical Congress, given a full account of the Apricot 

 culture here, which will, I trust, one day be in jour columns ; 

 I shall, therefore, forbear troubling you with it. 



With regard to the management of orchard-house trees, 

 about which I read so many peculiar opinions, it is so simple, 

 so invariably successful here, that I cannot help feeling my 

 eyes open widely with surprise when I read about failures. 

 It is an oft-told tale, but repetition will, I hope, be pardoned 

 by your readers. I can only state that any amateur who will 

 call into exercise gardening sense will succeed. We will make 

 the orchard-house year to commence about the end of October, 

 it may be extended to the middle of November. 



1. The trees of all kinds, except Apricots, should be top- 

 dressed by taking out the soil and the mass of inert fibrous 

 roots to 4 and 5 inches in depth ; the former for 13 and 

 15-inch pots, the latter for 18-inch pots. In removing the 

 mass of earth and fibrous roots, the rootlets, from the size of 

 a bent of grass upwards, should be left. The top-dressing, 

 which should be tender tenacious loam and rotten manure, 

 should be rammed down with a stout blunt stick, and the com- 

 post be raised slightly above the rim of the pot, so as to form 

 a concave surface, the tree in the centre. A week after the 

 top-dressing, the custom here is to give about two gallons of 

 water to each tree. Some refuse hay is placed on the surface 

 and around the pot to protect the roots from frost, and all is 

 safe for the winter. In muggy, wet weather the house may be 

 open night and day, closing it against storms of wind ; in 

 frosty weather it may be closed. 



2. Early in March, when the buds begin to swell, the trees 

 should have water, say two or three quarts, or a gallon, accord- 

 ing to the size of the pot and dryness of the earth in the pots ; 

 this should be given once a-week, or so, according to the state 

 of the weather. 



3. About the end of May, when the fruit is swelling, place 

 on the soil of the pot a rich surface-dressing. This may be 

 the (here) never-failing malt dust and horse-droppings — the 

 latter gathered from the roads — saturated with liquid manure, 

 but not allowed to ferment. This dressing should be above the 

 rim of the pot, being made into the shape of a circular bolster, 

 something like a life-preserver. The concavity retains water, 

 which at once makes its way to the stem of the tree in the 

 centre, and then radiates to all the roots. Horse-droppings 

 alone, or thoroughly decomposed manure, chopped and satu- 

 rated with liquid manure, make a good surface-dressing. No 

 lumps of raw farmyard dung will do. 



4. In June, and again in July, the surface-dressing must be 

 renewed, as it will have subsided. 



5. The shoots of Peach and Nectarine trees should be 



pinched-in to two and three full-sized leaveH almost daily till 

 the end of July. If the house is large, and large trees are 

 wished for, they may be pinched in to five and six full- sized 

 leaves. 



6. The trees will be kept in full health by syringing them 

 every morning during June, July, and August, between 7 and 

 8, and immediately opening all the ventilators, and again syring- 

 ing them between 5 and (i in the evening, closing the venti- 

 lators. The latter evening operation should be discontinued 

 in cool, rainy weather. In sultry weather in August the ven- 

 tilators should be open night and day. The flavour of the 

 fruit is improved by this practice. 



7. Aphides of all kinds are killed with the most simple of 

 all decoctions — 4 ozs. of quassia chips boiled ten minutes in a 

 gallon of water, to which, while cooling, 4 ozs. of soft soap are 

 added, and mixed. None of those offensive paints, such as 

 clay, sulphur, &c, are used ; they hide the buds and disfigure 

 the trees. In winter, when the brown Peach aphis makes its 

 appearance on the young shoots of Peach trees, the insects are 

 killed by the above, and in spring the green aphis is destroyed 

 by the same. 



By these few simple rules, which have been adhered to here 

 for many years, orchard-house trees have been kept in vigorous 

 health and fruitfulness. Why should not every lover of fruit- 

 tree culture do likewise ? I must add that my pots stand on a 

 surface made solid by constant use ; the trees make but very 

 few fibres below, and do not require lifting to break off the 

 roots ; the surface-dressing seems to be the great attraction. 

 None of my numerous houses has any roof ventilation; it 

 leads to expense, and is not required. 



If any of your readers wish to verify my statements they 

 have only to make their way to the Harlow Station, Great 

 Eastern Railway, whence it is a pleasant walk to the Sawbridge- 

 worth Nurseries. — T. R. 



A ROSARIAN'S PROTEST. 



I have a grievance. I used to know the faces of all my 

 friends at a moment's glance, but times are sadly changed. I 

 suppose I am growing old and my sight is failing ; and that is 

 the reason why I cannot tell, when I am at a public assembly, 

 whether I am in the presence of Monsieur le Comte de Nanteuil 

 or the Hero of Vitry, or who is presenting me Tea — Madame 

 Bravy or Miss Rosea Alba. As to recollecting the names of all 

 the generals, foreigners, and great men, with their decorations 

 and their scarlet, crimson, and red coats, or telling them one 

 from another when apart — that I find perfectly impossible, 

 though I have been moving in the very first circles for the last 

 twenty years, and flattered myself I knew every one worth 

 snowing. 



Another matter is that I do not approve of the ladies' 

 manners or their style of dress. They stand staring you out 

 of countenance with their great eyes. Mdlle. Bonnaire com- 

 plained that she was completely elbowed out of the assembly 

 at Kensington the other day by a lot of course individuals who 

 had no refinement about them. As for me, I have nearly 

 determined to retire from public society, and to have my own 

 private coteries instead, assembling there only the most aris- 

 tocratic, elegant, and distinguished of the upper ten thousand. 



Perhaps another day I may tell you who my company are. 

 In the meantime I must request you to treat this communica- 

 tion as strictly — Sub Rosa. 



THE APPLICATION OF MANURE. 

 The amount of manure at disposal is generally a question of 

 no little significance to the gardener, and I think we may safely 

 affii-m that the manner in which it is applied ought to be a 

 consideration, second only to that of its possession. Although 

 we live in the days of high farming and gardening, we have fre- 

 quent evidence that not a little ignorance exists on this point, 

 not in the field alone, but in the garden also. People reason 

 falsely upon this, as upon many other things, thinking that 

 because a little is beneficial, a great deal must be even more so. 

 Manure is often applied in a way in which not only a great 

 waste of the material itself is entailed, but in which it ex- 

 ercises a positively injurious action upon the very objects it 

 was intended to benefit. It is a custom with some gardeners — 

 not so frequent now as in times past perhaps — when planting 

 some sorts of trees and shrubs, to bury a large quantity of raw 



